Ghost Rider Fulfills Cage's Ambitions

Ghost Fulfills Cage's Ambitions

Avowed comic-book fan and actor/producer Nicolas Cage, who stars in Mark Steven Johnson's upcoming movie based on Marvel Comics' Ghost Rider, told SCI FI Wire that the role fulfills a number of childhood ambitions. "I like the monsters," Cage said in an interview at Comic-Con International in San Diego over the weekend. "I just like them. When I was a kid, I fantasized about being able to turn into the monster to scare the bully away. And, I think, little boys and girls, you know, when they see the werewolf movies, like The Wolf Man, it's very exciting. Monsters are fun to play, and with Ghost Rider, I got a chance to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. I got to be in a horror film in the grand sense of The Wolf Man and a comic-book-based movie."

In Ghost Rider, Cage plays stunt motorcycle rider Johnny Blaze, whose soul was bartered and who spends his night as an avenging demon with a flaming skull. Cage said that he still has his original Ghost Rider comics, on which Johnson said he's basing the movie. "Oh, absolutely," he said. "I would never sell those. They're in a special room upstairs, framed and on the wall."

Cage added: "I enjoyed the image of the skull on fire when I was a boy. And the mythology of it, the Faust-like storyline, was so original for a Marvel comic-book character. There really isn't any other one quite like Ghost Rider. And that's why I think he's fresh. I think it's time for a new kind of superhero. I'm speaking to the Ghost Rider fans. Step out. We all know who we are."

Cage, who has a tattoo of a flaming skull on his shoulder, was also known to ride motorcycles himself in his youth. But now, he said: "I have since stopped riding as much as I once did, because I have ... a baby boy, and I don't want to ... inspire [him] to ride motorcycles. But I do ride, yes." —Patrick Lee, News Editor

Release Date: February 2007